The Rest of June in Review

I know Mike and I have not posted in a while. How could we have predicted that the summer would have been this crazy? Law school is over and my students are out of school, but somehow (with the help of bar studying and summer programming at my job) our stress level has increased significantly in June. Besides work and studying, we've had lots of other things to take up the rest of our time:

June 14th: GoRuck Light!

• Sometime in May, Mike signed up for a challenge event with his friend from Woodberry, Taylor. I has just asked Mike to sign up for a race with me this summer and he said he was too busy! But I later found out that the draw of this challenge was that it was military-style and would help prepare him for ODS in the Fall. I normally only like familiar, but I impulsively decided to sign up with Mike and Taylor out of solidarity. We ended up doing the race the weekend after we got engaged and it was such a good shared experience to have in that moment. Mike carried me....on his back...at many points throughout the challenge. I carried a 125 pound girl for a little ways up a hill. Our entire team was working/lifting/running for about 5 hours total. And then, at the very end, our cadre called "the future bride and groom" up in front of the group. Who...me? Taylor had told our cadre about us getting engaged and our team ended up carrying us on their shoulders together while humming "Here comes the Bride...". It was an incredible event. I was sore for about a week after, but I already can't wait to find another one to do.
• A story Mike's friend, Taylor, wrote about the organization that does these challenges: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/dont-quit-why-a-post-writer-signed-up-for-12-hours-of-hell-twice/2013/08/22/4194305c-eeed-11e2-bed3-b9b6fe264871_story.html



Pre-race....when we still had the energy to smile:)

• This is a video of the team carrying Mike and I on their shoulders: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152618403725769. It says it is a public video, but if you can't see it, I don't know how to fix that:)
• The  website for more information about the event: https://www.goruck.com/light

Our whole group for the GoRuck Light! If you can't spot me, I'm the only one who is doing the 'sorority squat'.

June 15th: Cafe Berlin Brunch

• I need to write about Cafe Berlin because it's one of my first experience with authentic German food. Mike and I met up with Patrick and Justine and Justine lovingly offered to help us move some furniture later (that we were acquiring from Steph W.'s home in Maryland)...don't we have amazing friends? Anyway, while re-discovering my love of authentic sauerkraut and strong mustards, I also re-discovered how glorious french press coffee is.

June 16th: Private Lives

• We saw the last production of our Shakespeare Theater Company subscription for this year. This particular play asked deep questions about love, relationships, hate, and divorce, but did so in an often hilarious way. STC really did a great job with their subscriptions for young professionals and I hope we can take advantage of a similar opportunity in whatever cities we end up in.

June 21st: HOME

An adorable Ashton picture!

• I went home to see the family and Baby Ashton. I also wanted to hunt around for some supplies for the new apartment. (Our new place is basically just full of free stuff we've accumulated over the past couple of months. Thanks to all who donated to us!) Baby Ashton has gotten SO BIG. He is almost 8 months old now (I can't believe it) and has gotten way more active. He is such a happy baby, smiling all the time and laughing easily. I cannot wait until Courtney comes to the city and I get to babysit him for a whole evening!

June 28th-29th: Independence Run 5-miler and Moving

• At 7:15am the Saturday morning of our first day of REAL moving, I has a 5-mile race to run in Leesburg, VA. I must have signed up for it when I was feeling particularly motivated and impulsive, because Past Kels was not looking out for Future Kels. I also did not realize that Leesburg, VA was an hour away from DC and that I would have to wake up at 5am. Nonetheless, I had comittted to running it with Kelly and Alex and, by the time 8am rolled around, I'd completed 5 miles at about an 8:30 pace....not bad for the amount of training I had done which was nothing different my usual workouts. The race was actually super nice! The course was hilly, but in the countryside, and it felt nice to be that productive that early in the morning. At my best, I actually am a morning person....just not on moving weekends.
• Mike and I ended up moving everything in 4 trips with my car....and we did it all ourselves. I'm actually really impressed with us. I would describe the experience of moving with your partner as.....an exercise in character-building and trust-building. Because we both value efficiency, I did a lot of organizing/packing/sorting (my strengths) and Mike did a lot of heavy lifting and logistics (his strengths). Yesterday, we found a bug in our apartment and I told Mike that I'd identified bug-killing as one of his strengths so I'd let him handle that one;) I don't think he bought that compliment.

Rupert is settling in nicely! He is happier than we've ever seen him:)

June 30th: "Top Gun"

• Seeing a movie outdoors was one of the items on my DC summer bucket list. I decided on Top Gun in Crystal City because Kelly said it was the best venue and because I though Top Gun had something to do with the Navy. (I had never seen it before.) Kelly, Alex, Mike, and I ate We the Pizza and ice cream on blankets and then were treated to an epic movie (awesome soundtrack!) featuring Tom Cruise at his best. It was really hard to tear ourselves away from all of the organizing and nesting in our new place, but it was totally worth it!

Pizza and Screen on the Green in Crystal City! Blurry is arts

I can't believe that today is the first day of July and that, in the first 6 months of the year, the following happened:

• I started a new job
• We went to Disney!
• Mike finalized his acceptance into the Navy and commissioned!
• Mike graduated from law school!
• We got engaged:)
• We moved into a new place together:)

Things to look forward to during the rest of 2014!

• our Breakfast at Wimbledon brunch this Sunday!
• Jenny's wedding in less than 2 weeks! (We'll be staying with Brian and Kay in Philly)
• Mike finishing the Bar and us celebrating with a trip to Cumberland!
• 10K in August that hopefully Mike and I will actually have time to train for!
• Sending Mike off to ODS! Then welcoming him back!
• Getting married!